Sleigh Bells - Treats

Great albums almost always have an underlying, unifying theme to the songs. Pink Floyd's psychedelic masterpiece Dark Side Of The Moon is an obvious example. So is Radiohead's ride through dark futuristic soundscapes on Kid A. See Arcade Fire's Funeral for death and the fears, emotions, and unexpected beauty that results from it. Need to train a cyborg army for world domination circa 2095? Battles' Atlas can be your Jock Jams of Terminator-style destruction. While most albums may have a congealing theme, each listener comes away with different emotions and images embedded as a result of hearing them.

Let's take the new Sleigh Bells album Treats for example. The opener Tell 'Em summons a militia of machine gun wielding high school cheerleaders on a vengeful rampage against the football players who raped them. Our soft-singing heroine leads us through a war zone of guitar that grinds, shrieks, and explodes while returning fire with a Gatling gun drum track. The second track starts with that same style buzz-saw guitar, but when the chest rattling beat drops in and our heroine starts to moan along to it, she becomes the ringleader in a sweaty warehouse orgy porno. The former soft-but-assertive battle calls now sound like orders from a whip-wielding dominatrix against the pelvic grind beats. Riot rhythm follows with more singeing guitars and exploding beats, and our heroine is backed by her chanting mob of blood-thirsty cheerleaders. And so the album goes, back and forth between Robert Rodriguez-style battle scenes with sexy blood-stained cheerleaders, to back alley S&M orgy. The violence lets up only once on Rill Rill, a catchy side-to-side head bobber that serves as a much need water (or lube) break before Crown On The Ground, the bombastic highlight on an already "to 11" album. The track seems to only be held together by the sugary sweet serenade of our leading lady. And by serenade I mean her on the beat oh-uh-oh-ohs and sing-song delivery.

It's amazing you can even hear her umidst the chaotic, detonating rhythm section and powertool chords. Alexis Krauss' voice just rides the chaos like a veteran equestrian taming a wild stallion. She is the beautifully soothing counterpart to the mayhem behind her. Replace her with a growling agro male, add a little more guitar and you have a bad hardcore noise band trying to make it in the club scene. Or maybe......